The government protected airline industry gets more arrogant and abusive toward its passengers every day as its employees know that the government has decreed them as "gods" just a notch under TSA agents.
The only more abusive employees are in the government-controlled hospital sector.
It is best to avoid both sectors if at all possible.
In this case, a passenger was dragged off a plane.
Passengers were told that the flight they were on was overbooked and that the flight would not take off until tfour United employees who were flying as passengers had seats, An offer was increased to $800 to pay for passengers to leave, but no one volunteered so a manager came aboard the plane and said a computer would select four people to be taken off the flight. One, a doctor refused. That's when United requested police muscle to drag him off.
"Flight 3411 from Chicago to Louisville was overbooked,"a United Airlines spokesperson said. "After our team looked for volunteers, one customer refused to leave the aircraft voluntarily and law enforcement was asked to come to the gate."
The video shows what went down:
-RW
It is important to keep in mind property rights here. What libertarian is going to say that the airliner should be forced to associate with the doctor who refused to leave their property? So what if they don't want him as a customer? This is arrogance? This is abuse?
ReplyDeleteThe libertarian's concern in this scenario comes in the form of the tax-revenue that is looted to provide "security", not arrogance. I should be forced to pay no more for that company's security than I am to pay for their on-board snacks. When I am compelled to pay for the security via taxes, that is actual abuse.
If the man had wandered off the tarmac and onto the plane, then United could have him forcibly removed, citing property rights. But that's not what happened. The man purchased a ticket and a reservation for this particular flight and was allowed to board. THEN United changed its mind. That's United's responsibility. They should have kept upping the bump offer until enough people volunteered.
DeleteThis was a clear violation of the spirit if not law of contracts.
DeleteThey should have kept raising the amount offered until someone took it, not forcibly ejected the passenger.
This would be perfectly acceptable in your Private Property Society as you envision it too.
ReplyDeleteWhich only goes to show you that you are as ignorant about PPS as some of your other views.
DeleteWhy? The airline can have whatever terms of service that it likes in your PPS. In this case the government didn't tell the airline to do this, the airline did it as a private entity.
DeleteI would love to see this debated to some forum. I'm sure there is some clause when buying the ticket that says the airlines can do whatever the hell they want to you, but does that allow them to physically assault a paying customer? What a terrible video. It made me think of what would happen in the USA if the government went full Nazi and started rounding people up. People would say "OMG what are you doing?" from the comfort of their chair, and never do anything more.
DeleteThese airline terms and behaviors are a result of the industry's partnership with a government. In a true PPS such things would be company suicide.
DeleteOK, I'm not flying United if I can help it. They over-book and start beating up passengers? I don't think that's how things should be run. I will avoid if at all possible.
ReplyDeleteThe man paid for a ticket. The is engaging in fraud if it is telling tickets for seats that don't exist. Its basically fractional reserve ticketing.
ReplyDeleteThat's right, and fractional reserve ticketing is actually standard practice in the industry.
DeleteThis is an issue of (United's) property rights, plain and simple.
ReplyDeleteUnited has a clause in their agreements with their customers detailing the possibility that such changes may occur. This customer, who signed the agreement if he boarded the plane, was in the wrong to refuse to leave the plane when ordered to do so by United. On a related note, there is nothing wrong with the policy of "over-booking" from the libertarian standpoint.
I only quickly read the United contract (so I might have missed something) but it appears to apply to:
ReplyDelete1. Flights that are oversold; and
2. Rights of passengers when there is a denial of boarding for an oversold flight.
The flight was not oversold and the situation did not deal with a denial of boarding. After the passengers boarded, United decided they needed four seats to get four employees quickly to Louisville.
https://www.united.com/web/en-US/content/contract-of-carriage.aspx#sec25
Bob,
DeleteThis may be instructive:
"If airlines can't get passengers to switch of their own volition, they're allowed to bump fliers involuntarily.
In 2015, 46,000 travelers were involuntarily bumped from flights, according to data from the Department of Transportation.
Airlines set their own policies when it comes to the order in which passengers are bumped. The terms are sketched out in "contracts of carriage" that passengers agree to when they buy their tickets."
From:
http://money.cnn.com/2017/04/10/news/united-overbooking-policy/
The action by United was wrong, imo. Whether or not the bumping is justified is secondary, imo. I agree with the aforementioned unknown chap who suggested that United raise the price until there are takers, imo. Or maybe they could have just sat there until some passengers lost patience and left - or made deals with each other on the spot, imo.
ReplyDeleteMy opinion is what matters, because now I will go out of my way to avoid such a violent airline in the future.
Even CNBC was saying to simply increase the amount offered to the passengers until someone took the offer. Markets clear.
ReplyDeleteThe government regulations contributed to this issue: 1. The max the airline can offer is 4x the ticket value up to $1,350.00 and 2. The deadheading crew needed 10 hours off duty before the flight they were working the next morning (which was already being delayed to accommodate this).
ReplyDelete